Federal Energy Grant Advances State's Efforts

The Federal funds will be combined with more than $900,000 in private sector in-kind contributions and $350,000 that the state recently received for related studies - creating a fund of close to $2 million for increased use of renewable energy.

The state project is one of only 15 state-led clean energy projects that received the U.S. Department of Energy competitive grant award. In addition to this most recent competitive grant, the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) also received a $50,000 competitive grant from the National Governors Association in July to study electric vehicle policy issues, and a $300,000 grant from the Department of Energy to study undersea cabling.

"These grant projects will help study ways to modernize our electrical grids," said DBEDT Director Ted Liu. "This will be the first step in our renewable energy program for supplying O'ahu with electrical energy from other islands."

These latest grants build on the progress of the Hawai’i Clean Energy Initiative, an unprecedented partnership formed in January between the State of Hawai‘i and the U.S. Department of Energy. The goal of the Initiative is to significantly decrease energy demand and accelerate the use of renewables, so that clean energy resources will be sufficient to supply 70 percent of Hawai‘i’s energy needs by 2030.

"Our goal is to spur the greatest possible gains in energy efficiency or renewable energy for each dollar spent," said DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Rodgers.

• For more information, please visit http://hawaii.gov/gov/energy